Probably the most common action in an Email is attaching the file(s). Yet, email is probably the worst method to send a file. Primary because when the email thing was created back in the 1960s and mid-1970s our digital footprint is significant smaller compare to today, Email was never designed to send files at the first place. Today, Outlook is probably still one of the most used tools to send and receive emails. Here are three different ways to send a file over email in Outlook. Depends on the use case you may have a different use for each method listed below.
#1 Send Large File Via Network Share
If you need to send over some files to your colleague at work, chances are you can send as a network shared-link instead of attaching the actual file(s) into your email directory. There are pros and cons when you use this method to send over the file. The benefit is that you don’t have to worry about the file size limit per most email services even with Microsoft Exchange. But the downside is that it would be hard to control the permission, and the files wouldn’t be accessible unless downloaded otherwise.
To share a file or folder via email begin with the file’s parent folder right click > Properties.
Go to Sharing tab
Under the File Sharing prompt, click “e-mail” this will launch your default e-mail editor and embed the folder/file as a file link.
Example for sending over a file instead of the folder just simply append the filename to the folder and add the file extension in the email.
#2 Send inline attachment into your email body
Another common method to send over some attachments is by inline embedded into the email body. This is the most common when sending images in your email. To do this, go to Insert tab and click Pictures.
Select an image, and it will now show as an inline image inside the email body.
#3 Send an attachment – Attached in the email
Probably the most common method to attach any file in an email is to attach as an attachment. To do that go to the default Message tab and find Attach File or Attach Item.
This method and the #2 inline method are limited in the total file size to the mail servers on the both end. If you are trying to send over a large file to a cluster of the local network, you should use the first method to avoid any file size limitation.